Posted in Personal

No, haven’t yet seen the movie, but considering the constant prodding of friends to do so, I’m likely to see it some day. What I will note, however, is that having (and enjoying) office space in downtown San Francisco seems an ironic luxury, specifically for me. When employed at a normal “job” — where it was expected that I be present in the office at least half the week — I found myself wanting to work from the comfort of home more often than not. continued

Keeping up with client projects and balancing an increasing amount of social activity makes me feel sometimes like I’m barely staying afloat. So far, I’ve been able to maintain a moderate pace without pulling too many all-nighters to catch up on work. But personal projects, big and small, never seem to get started and/or finished. New books pile up on the corner of the desk or get filed away on a bookshelf and don’t get read. Commitments to learning new technology (for me) like PHP are long overdue. Making a full switch back to the Mac is not happening as quickly as expected (partly based on giving up my reliance on ASP). U.S. income tax deadlines are rapidly approaching with no time in sight available to pull together my own financial information.

But I’m fortunate right now to be dealing with a small number of good clients with interesting work. Intriguing prospects may be in the pipe for the near future. I’m happily meeting and getting to know many new friends. And having fun with the ones I’ve already known for a while. So I really can’t complain.

It didn’t take long for the person (or group) behind the website I mentioned on Friday to pull down or move the site to another address. Perhaps they were too embarrassed, or never intended the site to be seen — at least by my eyes. Since the site appeared to be set up to solicit corporate sponsorships for the event (upwards of $8000 a pop for “Gold” level), perhaps someone realized the dangerous legal territory they had entered. continued

How quickly an intended 2 or 3-day break from writing entries can turn into a 2-week hiatus. Viewing my entries by day displays a monthly calendar I implemented over the holidays. It sadly reveals a very sparse January so far. I’ve been railed by friends and family for not keeping up with the writing. Seems these words supplant the traditional phone calls and emails for keeping tabs on what I’m up to. continued

is flattery. But I’m not sure what I think about this recently discovered copy. It’s obviously a work-in-progress. Remnants of my content still poke through in places. I don’t know how long it will stay up, but I’ve taken a screenshot[.gif, 43 KB] or two[.gif, 27 KB] to save for my own entertainment, if nothing else. I’m completely in support of tearing apart a site to see how it’s put together. But I’m a little surprised at the level of detail to which this aspiring Dane has copied and reproduced every single convention, workaround, color, image, and CSS file. continued

Confusion seems to have surfaced around the Confessions piece I posted last week. Some think the article was wishy-washy and were hoping for a more definitive ending proclaiming loyalty to one OS or the other. Questions were asked like, “So which direction are you going?” continued

New rules govern my play. My professional environment is suddenly different. No one expects me to be “in the office”. There are no looming deadlines. I have no voicemail waiting for response. No conference calls planned for the day. Just the oh-so-minor responsibilities of working out the plans for a new business. Right? continued

After 6 years, 3 months, 3 days, my employment with Wired comes to an end today. What a ride it’s been.

Jumping back in time, I remember picking up an interest in bulletin boards in ’92 while I was still in college. I started at a marketing design firm named Mentus as an intern during my senior year. In my spare time, I spent countless hours exploring the concept of connected computers and online content using the company’s AOL account. Of course, with a 14.4Kbps WinFax modem, the majority of my time was spent waiting for the next screen to load. continued

How do we say more with less? When I write, I tend to be wordy. Four long convoluted paragraphs that could probably be summed up in one short sentence. As a designer, I was never trained to be a writer outside of a few college papers. But I know the power of words. And I believe in simplicity. continued

Late last night, I got a call from a very good old high school friend from Ohio, Jon Hamilton. Jon started out soon after high school as an EMT, went back to school to become a paramedic, and is now a firefighter in a north-side suburb of Columbus. Jon, and another friend Ken Sabo, just earned the 2002 Championship in the production class of the SCCA Pro Rally Circuit. I think Jon got his first VW GTI while we were seniors in high school, which came pre-mod as a rally car with a full rollover cage. I remember riding along with Jon as navigator in a couple of the Ohio State SCCA chapter rallies. They were a blast, but unfortunately, my weak motion-sickness-prone stomach couldn’t handle the fast turns, shouting out directions from a dinky hand-drawn map at the same time. Jon has been making news with the win because he now races with a soy-based diesel-powered Volkswagen Golf. continued